Brain Implants
Ed tech people often joke about directly implanting the computers into students’ or teachers’ brains to just bypass that messy learning stuff. As is often the case, science fiction is catching up with science fact.
According to an article in eSchool News (www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStory.cfm?ArticleID=5003), the Food and Drug Administration has approved the first clinical to allow the implantation of computer chips into the brains of paralyzed patients. If successful, the chips will allow the patients to control a computer just through thought alone. It offers the potential for a significantly improved quality of life for a variety of disabled people.
As this technology expands in use (and you know it will) the kinds of patients that will benefit will grow. Sooner or later, people that we currently think of as healthy will see a need to have some kind of cybernetic enhancement. Will we need to develop school policies about the allowable use of implants on test-taking?
This isn’t that far off from reality. The National Institute of Health began experiments with the use of human growth hormone to help children with underactive pituitary glands back in the 1960s. Due to the scarcity of the treatment (the hormone had to be harvested from cadavers, and was in very short supply) it was only used for children with relatively extreme stature problems. However, with the advent of genetic engineering, it is now possible to manufacture the hormone in much greater quantities.
With greater availability, the definition of “short” became a matter of opinion. A black market for the use of the hormone developed, with many parents buying it for their children not because they were short, but because they wanted them even taller - maybe 6′ 2″, not 5′ 11″. That could make the difference between being the third-string quarterback or the starter.
Last year, the FDA (which opposes cosmetic use) approved the prescription of human growth hormone (HGH) for otherwise healthy students who would be shorter than 5′ 3″ (boys) or 4′ 11″. The treatment typically adds 2-3 inches in height over two or three years of daily injections, at a cost of up to $25,000 per year. (There is also a popular belief that HGH will slow the aging process. Do a Google search with the term “hgh” and it’s very eye-opening.)
I think we’ll end up looking at similar issues with brain implants, especially when the chips get so small that they can be popped in with outpatient surgery. A quick trip to the doctor for laser eye surgery to fix my astigmatism, and a quick shot of better spelling and math chip enhancements, and I’ll be on my way.